Congress wants to go virtual

A US congressman last week introduced a resolution that would establish a “virtual Congress” – a legislature in which lawmakers could work remotely and ‘telecommute’ to Washington using nothing more than a computer.

New Mexico Rep. Steve Pearce first introduced the idea in Nov.
2010, but lawmakers initially rejected the idea. But the legislator
is determined to pass the resolution and has brought it back to the
House, arguing that it would allow representatives to be closer to
constituents by working and living in their home states.

The resolution was assigned to a congressional committee on
March 21, which will decide whether to pass it on the House or
Senate floor for a vote. Although the bill is unpopular, Pearce
believes that evolving technology has made telecommuting easier
than ever and that a “virtual Congress” lies in the inevitable
future.

“Thanks to modern technology, members of Congress can debate,
vote and carry out their constitutional duties without having to
leave the accountability and personal contact of their
congressional districts,” he told The Hill Newspaper.
“Keeping legislators closer to the people we represent would
pull back Washington’s curtain and allow constituents to see and
feel, first-hand, their government at work."

In 2010, Pearce complained that citizens across the US have
‘little-to-no-input’ on legislation that is debated on in
Washington, since lawmakers are so inaccessible and rarely in their
home offices. He believes that keeping legislators in their
home states and districts would “pull back Washington’s curtain
and allow constituents to see and feel, first-hand, their
government at work.”

Voting could be done from lawmakers’ home states, and they would
only need to travel to Washington for the few occasions that there
is an important meeting or reception to attend. Pearce claims that
this would save US taxpayers significant sums of money, since
lawmakers would rarely be traveling.

“Members of Congress would report to Washington for debate
and votes on critical bills and bills that pass a certain threshold
of spending. Other occasions that warrant they be present in person
would be to attend the annual State of the Union or receive
addresses by foreign heads of state and other significant
events,” he said in 2010.

Pearce also argues that lawmakers would be safer working from
home, since terrorists and ‘evildoers’ would no longer view an
empty Congress as a potential target.

Even though Pearce’s measure hopes to establish a more
convenient work environment, the resolution has received
significant criticism from lawmakers who believe in-person meetings
and votes are important. Critics of the 113th Congress
argue that a main reason for lack of achievement is that
representatives lack direct personal contact and often don’t know
each other.

“I know many times I would look up on TV and I would see
somebody and then the name would come up and it would say ‘member
of Congress’ and I’d go ‘I don’t even know who that is,’”
former congressman Connie Mack told CNN in January 2013.

Rather than send representatives home to work virtually, critics
of Pearce’s resolution believe that the problem needs to be
addressed by bringing them together more often.

And despite the ease of telecommuting to work in the Internet
era, a number of large tech companies have recently announced that
in-person interactions would yield greater achievements. In
February, Yahoo! announced that all of its telecommuters would have
to start coming into an office starting this June. Earlier this
month, Best Buy said it would no longer allow any of its corporate
employees to work remotely.

Overall, telecommuting is becoming more common in the US. But
Pearce’s resolution has a slim chance of making it to the floor for
a vote: GovTrack.us, a site that tracks legislation and monitors
its popularity, believes the committee will not approve Pearce’s
idea. Only 27 percent of House simple resolutions make it past the
committee. With no cosponsors and a history of failure, it appears
that Congress is not quite ready to start having virtual
conversations.